Nintendo's DS Line Caps 50 Million Units Sold; Mario Cheers

50 million. Regardless of who you are, or what you're selling, that's a lot of product. Nintendo's Game Boy line has sold like hotcakes around the globe, practically cementing it as the most popular and well-known gaming handheld series this world has ever seen. Now, the DS line is on its way to reaching the same type of elite status. The best-selling video game system in U.S. history reached another milestone in September: Lifetime sales of the Nintendo DS family of systems have surpassed 50 million units, according to the NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States.

Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing, didn't have to have his arm tugged to gloat: "The Nintendo DS forever changed the gaming landscape, and the fact that consumers continue to embrace the platform is a testament to its value and mass appeal. Our hand-held story continues with the Nintendo 3DS system, which just had its second consecutive month of growth and enters its first holiday season with a monster lineup of games, including Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7."

That said, the 3DS cannot be counted for many of those sales. Even after the price reduction in August, only 450,000 units have sold. Nintendo has been fairly adamant that they aren't about to try 3D on the home console until they feel that 3D in the home has truly taken off, and after this soured experiment in the handheld world, perhaps they'll never bite.

NINTENDO DS CROSSES 50 MILLION UNITS SOLD

Oct. 13, 2011

The best-selling video game system in U.S. history reached another
milestone in September: Lifetime sales of the Nintendo DS™ family of
systems have surpassed 50 million units, according to the NPD Group,
which tracks video game sales in the United States.

"The Nintendo DS forever changed the gaming landscape, and the fact
that consumers continue to embrace the platform is a testament to its
value and mass appeal," said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America's
executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "Our hand-held story
continues with the Nintendo 3DS system, which just had its second
consecutive month of growth and enters its first holiday season with a
monster lineup of games, including Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart
7."

Other Nintendo milestones reached in September include:

Nintendo sold more than 260,000 Nintendo 3DS™ portable entertainment
systems, an increase of more than 10 percent from the previous month.
Nintendo has sold nearly 450,000 units of Nintendo 3DS following a price
reduction on Aug. 12.

The Legend of Zelda™: Ocarina of Time™ 3D became the first Nintendo
3DS title to surpass 500,000 total units sold in the United States.

Nintendo sold more than 647,000 total hardware units in September,
including 240,000 Wii™ systems and more than 145,000 units of the
Nintendo DS family.

The 273 million software units sold for the Nintendo DS family equates
to more than 107,000 games being sold per day, every day for almost
seven years. More than 273 million units of software have been sold for
the platform in the United States, including 24 of the top 25 and 43 of
the top 50 best-selling portable games in this hand-held generation.